Friday

May 17, 2019 at 2:01 AM

Families are the solution

to what ails our communities

For as long as I can remember, we have been told that the solution to crime in African-American communities is more jobs. Now we have record low unemployment among African-Americans, yet we still have high murder rates in many black communities. Perhaps it is time to put that old saw to rest.

Families are the solution — not just in the African-American community but in every community in America.

America will be great again once we figure out how to rebuild the American family.

Rod Sullivan, Jacksonville

Taxpayers should not subsidize

Rood’s planned charter school

Recently a Times-Union editorial saluted developer John Rood, the chairman of The Vestcor Companies, for his firm’s work in building workforce and affordable-housing units in Downtown Jacksonville.

Certainly this housing is much needed. But these apartment units would not have built without government subsidies, which usually occur after markets fail and require support from taxpayers.

Now Rood is asking the Duval County Public Schools to back his proposal for a charter school near Downtown. Rood says the school would be modeled after an initiative launched by Hillsdale College, an overwhelmingly white and Christian private school in Michigan (an institution, ironically, that takes no government money nor is subject to government mandates).

It makes sense to provide public subsidies to finance Rood’s work to build workforce and affordable-housing units in Downtown. Why? Because our city doesn’t have enough of this kind of housing — using public subsidies to help create it is a logical step.

On the other hand the Duval public school system has many existing educational options in place within the district. Given that fact, there is no compelling reason to ask the public to subsidize Rood's charter school.